Onward, a Fundrise Production

When it comes to ambitious investing, many people make the mistake of chasing glory and fame — at the expense of sound judgment and real financial results. But not Ira Lubert, chairman and co-founder of Independence Capital Partners and Lubert Adler Partners, and the guest on our latest episode of Onward. Ira has instead spent decades content to stay out of the limelight, while architecting a family of funds now worth roughly $50B. Ira’s activities in real estate, equity in tech and health care, life sciences, debt funds, and more, have contributed to the vast and varied portfolio that has slowly accumulated and grown under his stewardship for years. Join Fundrise CEO Ben Miller as he talks to Ira about his key insights from his professional experience, including the importance of having extremely flexible timelines, when to deploy capital, balancing equity and debt, and more.  Have questions or feedback about this episode? Drop us a note at Onward@Fundrise.com. Onward is hosted by Ben Miller, co-founder and CEO of Fundrise, and Cardiff Garcia, co-founder of Bazaar Audio and host of the economics-focused podcast The New Bazaar (after spending many years as the co-creator and co-host of NPR's The Indicator podcast). Podcast production by The Podcast Consultant. Music by Seaplane Armada. About Fundrise With over 1 million users, Fundrise is America's largest direct-to-investor alternative asset investment platform. Since 2012, our mission has been to build a better financial system by empowering the individual. We make it easier and more efficient than ever for anyone to invest in institutional-quality private alternative assets — all at the touch of a button.   Please see the Fundrise Flagship Real Estate Fund website (http://fundriseintervalfund.com), Fundrise Income Fund website (http://fundriseincomerealestatefund.com), and Fundrise Innovation Fund website (http://fundrise.com/innovation) for more information on each fund, including each fund’s prospectus.  For the publicly filed offering circulars of the Fundrise eREITs and eFunds, not all of which may be currently qualified by the SEC, please see fundrise.com/oc. Want to see the specific properties that make up and power Fundrise portfolios? Check out our active and past projects at www.fundrise.com/assets. 

Mind games and “dirty term sheets.” These are the kinds of potential pitfalls that await tech entrepreneurs and employees in the financial landscape of 2023, especially those particularly in need of fresh infusions of venture capital. In this latest episode of Onward, Fundrise CEO Ben Miller walks co-host Cardiff Garcia through another set of fascinating — if often unforgiving — complexities arising from today’s high interest rate environment. Now that capital is no longer flowing freely and willingly from investors across the country, what options do tech leaders have when their companies’ valuations plummet in comparison to the sky-high estimations from just last year? As Ben emphasizes once again, when we’re uncertain about the future, we should always look to the past. Using lessons learned from the 2000 tech bubble collapse, Ben illustrates for us how a company seeking venture capital in a harsh financial environment like today’s has a choice. They encounter a fork in the road: Is it more prudent to take a down round and accept a lower valuation? Or better to accept structured money and dirty terms, while maintaining the high value assessments assigned during the fundraising of earlier rounds? All this and more in the latest episode of Onward. Have questions or feedback about this episode? Drop us a note at Onward@Fundrise.com. Onward is hosted by Ben Miller, co-founder and CEO of Fundrise, and Cardiff Garcia, co-founder of Bazaar Audio and host of the economics-focused podcast The New Bazaar (after spending many years as the co-creator and co-host of NPR's The Indicator podcast). Podcast production by The Podcast Consultant. Music by Seaplane Armada. About Fundrise With over 1 million users, Fundrise is America's largest direct-to-investor alternative asset investment platform. Since 2012, our mission has been to build a better financial system by empowering the individual. We make it easier and more efficient than ever for anyone to invest in institutional-quality private alternative assets — all at the touch of a button.   Please see the Fundrise Flagship Real Estate Fund website (http://fundriseintervalfund.com), Fundrise Income Fund website (http://fundriseincomerealestatefund.com), and Fundrise Innovation Fund website (http://fundrise.com/innovation) for more information on each fund, including each fund’s prospectus.  For the publicly filed offering circulars of the Fundrise eREITs and eFunds, not all of which may be currently qualified by the SEC, please see fundrise.com/oc. Disclaimer: An investor in the Fundrise Innovation Fund should consider the investment objectives, risks, and charges and expenses of the Fund carefully before investing. The Fund’s prospectus contains this and other information about the Fund and may be obtained at fundrise.com/innovation. Investors should read the prospectus carefully before investing. Want to see the specific properties that make up and power Fundrise portfolios? Check out our active and past projects at www.fundrise.com/assets. 

Fundrise CEO Ben Miller is joined by Schecky Schechner, Managing Director and Co-Head of US Real Estate Banking at Barclays Capital, for a wide-ranging and technically insightful conversation in this latest episode of Onward. As Ben points out, Schecky is credited as one of the co-inventors of Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities (CMBS) in the wake of the S&L crisis in the late ‘80s, a securitization innovation that has since become a trillion-dollar system, earning Schecky his reputation as a living legend in the real estate world. Ben and Schecky’s conversation opens with a broad discussion on the current state of the market before moving into a recap of our “Great Deleveraging” thesis. They then go on to discuss a wealth of additional topics and key financial ideas, including how securitization is a democratizing force in financial markets; why the late 1980’s were “the Big Bang” for real estate finance; why the idioms “A rolling loan gathers no loss,” and “Extend and pretend,” might have a major impact on the American economy over the next twelve months; and much more. Have questions or feedback about this episode? Drop us a note at Onward@Fundrise.com. Onward is hosted by Ben Miller, co-founder and CEO of Fundrise, and Cardiff Garcia, co-founder of Bazaar Audio and host of the economics-focused podcast The New Bazaar (after spending many years as the co-creator and co-host of NPR's The Indicator podcast). Podcast production by The Podcast Consultant. Music by Seaplane Armada. About Fundrise: With over 1 million users, Fundrise is America's largest direct-to-investor alternative asset investment platform. Since 2012, our mission has been to build a better financial system by empowering the individual. We make it easier and more efficient than ever for anyone to invest in institutional-quality private alternative assets — all at the touch of a button.   Please see the Fundrise Flagship Real Estate Fund website (http://fundriseintervalfund.com), Fundrise Income Fund website (http://fundriseincomerealestatefund.com), and Fundrise Innovation Fund website (http://fundrise.com/innovation) for more information on each fund, including each fund’s prospectus.  For the publicly filed offering circulars of the Fundrise eREITs and eFunds, not all of which may be currently qualified by the SEC, please see fundrise.com/oc. Want to see the specific properties that make up and power Fundrise portfolios? Check out our active and past projects at www.fundrise.com/assets. 

In the latest episode of Onward, Fundrise CEO Ben Miller gives us the opportunity to listen in on a conversation with one of the most experienced and influential figures in real estate today: Steve Ross, the largest real estate developer in the world. In addition to being the co-founder and chairman of RSE Ventures and owning the Miami Dolphins, Steve is the chairman and founder of Related Companies, the real estate firm behind the Time Warner Center in New York City, plus the 18 million square foot Hudson Yards project, the largest private real estate development in the history of the United States. Ben and Steve’s conversation covers a broad range of topics, drawing on Steve’s vast experience of over 50 years as a major player in the real estate industry. They discuss how real estate funding has changed over the decades, how experiences from past financial crises can help investors today, and the importance of affordable housing for the future of the American economy.  Have questions or feedback about this episode? Drop us a note at Onward@Fundrise.com. Onward is hosted by Ben Miller, co-founder and CEO of Fundrise, and Cardiff Garcia, co-founder of Bazaar Audio and host of the economics-focused podcast The New Bazaar (after spending many years as the co-creator and co-host of NPR's The Indicator podcast). Podcast production by Seaplane Armada and The Podcast Consultant. Music by Seaplane Armada. About Fundrise: With over 1 million users, Fundrise is America's largest direct-to-investor alternative asset investment platform. Since 2012, our mission has been to build a better financial system by empowering the individual. We make it easier and more efficient than ever for anyone to invest in institutional-quality private alternative assets — all at the touch of a button.   Please see the Fundrise Flagship Real Estate Fund website (http://fundriseintervalfund.com), Fundrise Income Fund website (http://fundriseincomerealestatefund.com), and Fundrise Innovation Fund website (http://fundrise.com/innovation) for more information on each fund, including each fund’s prospectus.  For the publicly filed offering circulars of the Fundrise eREITs and eFunds, not all of which may be currently qualified by the SEC, please see fundrise.com/oc. Want to see the specific properties that make up and power Fundrise portfolios? Check out our active and past projects at www.fundrise.com/assets. 

In anticipation of the upcoming publication of Fundrise’s 2022 year-end letter to investors, CEO Ben Miller is once again joined by Kendall Davis, Head of Investor Relations and Investor Operations, for an in-depth analysis and conversation about the Fundrise portfolio’s 2022 performance.  This episode is indispensable to any listener interested in better contextualization of and perspective on our portfolio and its outlook, whether that’s understanding how we so handily outperformed public market analogues; how we adjusted our strategy and fortified our portfolio over the past several years in anticipation of the sweeping 2022 market downturn; and why, looking ahead, we’re in a position of enviable investing strength, as we’ve prepared to take advantage of this next stage of the market cycle. Some of the topics Kendall brings to the conversation for Ben’s consideration include: - Why Fundrise NAVs are down, particularly in the Flagship Fund. - Why defensive positioning, involving low debt and high liquidity, is so important today, and why we’re set up for potentially once-in-a-cycle investment opportunities in the months and years ahead. - What signals like an inverted yield curve tells us about what to expect and where we are in the market cycle. - What an optimistic Ben Miller (whose staunch market realism sometimes sounds like pessimism) looks and sounds like. (Listen until the end of the episode to find out.) - And much more, all covered in Ben and Kendall’s conversation. Have questions or feedback about this episode? Drop us a note at Onward@Fundrise.com. Onward is hosted by Ben Miller, co-founder and CEO of Fundrise, and Cardiff Garcia, co-founder of Bazaar Audio and host of the economics-focused podcast The New Bazaar (after spending many years as the co-creator and co-host of NPR's The Indicator podcast). Podcast production by The Podcast Consultant. Music by Seaplane Armada. About Fundrise: With over 1 million users, Fundrise is America's largest direct-to-investor alternative asset investment platform. Since 2012, our mission has been to build a better financial system by empowering the individual. We make it easier and more efficient than ever for anyone to invest in institutional-quality private alternative assets — all at the touch of a button.   Please see the Fundrise Flagship Real Estate Fund website (http://fundriseintervalfund.com), Fundrise Income Fund website (http://fundriseincomerealestatefund.com), and Fundrise Innovation Fund website (http://fundrise.com/innovation) for more information on each fund, including each fund’s prospectus.  For the publicly filed offering circulars of the Fundrise eREITs and eFunds, not all of which may be currently qualified by the SEC, please see fundrise.com/oc. Want to see the specific properties that make up and power Fundrise portfolios? Check out our active and past projects at www.fundrise.com/assets. 

Join your Onward co-hosts, Fundrise CEO Ben Miller and Cardiff Garcia, to wrap up 2022 in the same way we started it: with a session of scenario planning.  Ben and Cardiff each share their predictions for what the next year might bring, including possibilities that are both very likely and, admittedly, a little more far afield. We learn the premise and implications of the “80/20 rule” for inflation, what Ben means by the phrase “a recession incession,” and what it looks like when the stock market “PEGs down.” Beyond that, a quick review of the implications of The Great Deleveraging, the subject of our November 14 episode — less of a predication and more of a glimpse of the horizon, as Ben emphasizes that a financial liquidity crunch is already in motion, even if many players in the financial world aren’t ready to talk about it publicly. But then, Ben has something a little more radical in store, as he introduces an entirely new framework of Scenario Planning for thinking about the future, based on an understanding and extrapolation of inorganic and organic systems. An inorganic system is made up of inanimate objects, while an organic system is composed of living entities. If a key component of success is pattern matching, then a common mistake is misreading the way a system is likely to behave. Like a wild population of animals or insects that grows too fast, overwhelming its food sources and habitat, will we see a system’s sudden collapse? It all comes down to determining which economic trends follow a common biological pattern of a J-curve or an S-curve, and which have the potential to buck predictable trajectories entirely, like an evolutionary leap or a deadly mutation. As Ben and Cardiff discuss, there could be major benefits for anyone who can stay ahead of the curve, whatever shape that curve may take. Have questions or feedback about this episode? Drop us a note at Onward@Fundrise.com. Onward is hosted by Ben Miller, co-founder and CEO of Fundrise, and Cardiff Garcia, co-founder of Bazaar Audio and host of the economics-focused podcast The New Bazaar (after spending many years as the co-creator and co-host of NPR's The Indicator podcast). Podcast production and music by Seaplane Armada. About Fundrise With over 1 million users, Fundrise is America's largest direct-to-investor alternative asset investment platform. Since 2012, our mission has been to build a better financial system by empowering the individual. We make it easier and more efficient than ever for anyone to invest in institutional-quality private alternative assets — all at the touch of a button.   Please see the Fundrise Flagship Real Estate Fund website (http://fundriseintervalfund.com), Fundrise Income Fund website (http://fundriseincomerealestatefund.com), and Fundrise Innovation Fund website (http://fundrise.com/innovation) for more information on each fund, including each fund’s prospectus.  For the publicly filed offering circulars of the Fundrise eREITs and eFunds, not all of which may be currently qualified by the SEC, please see fundrise.com/oc. Want to see the specific properties that make up and power Fundrise portfolios? Check out our active and past projects at www.fundrise.com/assets. 

Join Ben Miller, CEO of Fundrise, for a conversation with a very special guest on this episode of Onward: Larry Silverstein is the founder and chairman of Silverstein Properties, the owner-developer of the World Trade Center, along with a remarkable portfolio of other major properties that have defined New York City life and the Manhattan skyline for decades.  The interview gives us a tour of both Mr. Silverstein’s life and the history of New York, as he recounts his experience investing in a number of influential New York properties. Each acquisition also highlights a different stage in financial history, showcasing a defining moment in the country’s and New York’s economic cycles. As Mr. Silverstein tells the story behind the acquisition of each piece of real estate, he imparts investing insights that remain critical to investors today. Those experiences include making the decision to invest during a struggling market — such as when he bought 711 5th Ave., in a declining New York — or the challenges of leasing a million square feet of commercial space — such as when he developed 7 WTC. Ultimately, when Ben asks what advice Mr. Silverstein has for investors today, he recommends, “whatever you do, think long-term” and to invest “in quality.”  Have questions or feedback about this episode? Drop us a note at Onward@Fundrise.com. Onward is hosted by Ben Miller, co-founder and CEO of Fundrise, and Cardiff Garcia, co-founder of Bazaar Audio and host of the economics-focused podcast The New Bazaar (after spending many years as the co-creator and co-host of NPR's The Indicator podcast). Podcast production by The Podcast Consultant. Music by Seaplane Armada. About Fundrise With over 1 million users, Fundrise is America's largest direct-to-investor alternative asset investment platform. Since 2012, our mission has been to build a better financial system by empowering the individual. We make it easier and more efficient than ever for anyone to invest in institutional-quality private alternative assets — all at the touch of a button.   Please see the Fundrise Flagship Real Estate Fund website (http://fundriseintervalfund.com), Fundrise Income Fund website (http://fundriseincomerealestatefund.com), and Fundrise Innovation Fund website (http://fundrise.com/innovation) for more information on each fund, including each fund’s prospectus.  For the publicly filed offering circulars of the Fundrise eREITs and eFunds, not all of which may be currently qualified by the SEC, please see fundrise.com/oc. Want to see the specific properties that make up and power Fundrise portfolios? Check out our active and past projects at www.fundrise.com/assets. 

This week, we have a special treat from Onward: our first bonus episode, dedicated entirely to discussing and answering important questions about Fundrise, sourced directly from Fundrise investors. Kendall Davis, head of investor relations and investor operations, joins Ben Miller, Fundrise CEO, to share some of the topics on our investor community’s minds. As always, discussing Fundrise is just a starting point, as each question about the company opens a door into much broader discussion about the economy, its current state, and some fundamental ideas about how finance works.  Join Kendall and Ben to learn more about how Fundrise is prepared not only to mitigate losses in a downturn but to thrive; why leverage is the only way smart people go broke; how the focus of real estate investment strategies shifted from up-and-coming urban areas to the Sunbelt; and how Fundrise collaborated directly with the late Marty Dunn, former Deputy Director and Acting Director of the SEC, to find the best way to safely democratize access to real estate investing, within the framework of financial regulations.  Have questions or feedback about this episode? Drop us a note at Onward@Fundrise.com. Onward is hosted by Ben Miller, co-founder and CEO of Fundrise, and Cardiff Garcia, co-founder of Bazaar Audio and host of the economics-focused podcast The New Bazaar (after spending many years as the co-creator and co-host of NPR's The Indicator podcast). Podcast production and music by Seaplane Armada. About Fundrise With over 1 million users, Fundrise is America's largest direct-to-investor alternative asset investment platform. Since 2012, our mission has been to build a better financial system by empowering the individual. We make it easier and more efficient than ever for anyone to invest in institutional-quality private alternative assets — all at the touch of a button.   Please see the Fundrise Flagship Real Estate Fund website (http://fundriseintervalfund.com), Fundrise Income Fund website (http://fundriseincomerealestatefund.com), and Fundrise Innovation Fund website (http://fundrise.com/innovation) for more information on each fund, including each fund’s prospectus.  For the publicly filed offering circulars of the Fundrise eREITs and eFunds, not all of which may be currently qualified by the SEC, please see fundrise.com/oc. Want to see the specific properties that make up and power Fundrise portfolios? Check out our active and past projects at www.fundrise.com/assets. 

For months, the hosts of Onward — Ben Miller, Fundrise CEO, and Cardiff Garcia — have discussed the many ways that the current, high inflation environment will impact the broader economy and behavior of investors. In this latest episode, Ben brings a brand new idea to the table: a specific theory outlining how our financial system is on the verge of real crisis and potential collapse. Join us to hear Ben explain how the practice of using loans as the assets for generating new loans has created a snarled chain of lending. Now that interest rates have exploded to new highs, what happens when one loan in the chain comes due, and refinancing is impossible? What exactly do we mean when we say, “Turtles all the way down”? And, lastly, how is Fundrise positioned to capitalize on what Ben calls a potentially once in a lifetime opportunity? Listen to the latest episode of Onward for answers to all these questions, and more.  Have questions or feedback about this episode? Drop us a note at Onward@Fundrise.com. Onward is hosted by Ben Miller, co-founder and CEO of Fundrise, and Cardiff Garcia, co-founder of Bazaar Audio and host of the economics-focused podcast The New Bazaar (after spending many years as the co-creator and co-host of NPR's The Indicator podcast). Podcast production and music by Seaplane Armada. About Fundrise With over 1 million users, Fundrise is America's largest direct-to-investor real estate investment platform. Since 2012, our mission has been to build a better financial system by empowering the individual. We make it easier and more efficient than ever for anyone to invest in institutional-quality private real estate — all at the touch of a button.  Please see the Fundrise Flagship Real Estate Fund website (http://fundriseintervalfund.com), Fundrise Income Fund website (http://fundriseincomerealestatefund.com), and Fundrise Innovation Fund website (http://fundrise.com/innovation) for more information on each fund, including each fund’s prospectus.  For the publicly filed offering circulars of the Fundrise eREITs and eFunds, not all of which may be currently qualified by the SEC, please see fundrise.com/oc. Want to see the specific properties that make up and power Fundrise portfolios? Check out our active and past projects at www.fundrise.com/assets. 

In this month’s episode of Onward, Fundrise CEO Ben Miller is joined by Ben Carlson, Director of Institutional Asset Management at Ritholtz Wealth Management, for a wide-ranging discussion that offers fresh, critical thoughts on the state of the market, plus new perspective on our current moment in financial history. Ben C’s additional experience as an author of multiple books and co-host of his own financial podcast, Animal Spirits, opens the door to some provocative questions, including why wealthy individuals are historically most susceptible to financial fraud. More broadly, Ben C explains, his study of financial history has shown that many factors are in flux between eras, but one element that always stays the same is human nature and people’s capacity to behave irrationally. What does that mean for investors today? Have questions or feedback about this episode? Drop us a note at Onward@Fundrise.com. Onward is hosted by Ben Miller, co-founder and CEO of Fundrise, and Cardiff Garcia, co-founder of Bazaar Audio and host of the economics-focused podcast The New Bazaar (after spending many years as the co-creator and co-host of NPR's The Indicator podcast). Podcast production and music by Seaplane Armada. About Fundrise With over 1 million users, Fundrise is America's largest direct-to-investor real estate investment platform. Since 2012, our mission has been to build a better financial system by empowering the individual. We make it easier and more efficient than ever for anyone to invest in institutional-quality private real estate—all at the touch of a button.  Please see the Fundrise Flagship Real Estate Fund website, Fundrise Income Fund website, and Fundrise Innovation Fund website for more information on each fund, including each fund’s prospectus.  For the publicly filed offering circulars of the Fundrise eREITs and eFunds, not all of which may be currently qualified by the SEC, please see fundrise.com/oc.